So last night it was revealed that Splatoon will be receiving an update patch on July 1st in Japan (June 30th in the Americas), and it will include some tweaks to game balance (mainly to a handful of specials and gear, not to weapons) and some measures designed specifically to make the upcoming Splatfest run more smoothly.
Here are the official patch notes in English. Not a whole lot of changes in terms of direct gameplay, but the Kraken nerf is probably gonna be the most talked about. Whether the Kraken will be knocked back more or less than (or equal to) the Bubbler remains to be seen, but I think this is actually a smart move, even though I don't consider the Kraken broken anyway. As it is now, there are very few ways to stand up to a Kraken without being forced to give up your position, making it a very powerful "line-breaker". Shooting at a Kraken so as to trap and corner it once it wears off will probably still take some skill given its mobility, so it's not
that much of a nerf, but it should address the line-breaking issue well enough in the right hands. It's possible this is also an attempt to prevent any sort of over-centralization - the Krak-On Roller has been very popular since the beginning, and Nintendo may want players to branch out into other
rollers weapons.
So what's the technique for fighting against people using rollers? It seems like every team I play against has at least two of them on it, sometimes three. As far as I can tell they're basically melee weapons that let you trample people, right? And they seem to have a weak ranged function? When I find myself one-on-one with one I usually just lose, the only way I've been able to consistently beat them is with two people, one to draw fire and one to pick them off. They don't seem unmanageable, but I figure I better get them figured out because they seem to be so common. Maybe it's just a better of learning to keep track of them map better so they don't get the drop on me in tight spaces. At any rate, having fun so far. I'm up to a dozen matches or so and I'm learning a little. Lot of fun, at any rate.
Edit: Wait, is the secret "run backward while shooting"? I just tried that and it seemed to work pretty well. I guess it's just a matter of not getting engaged with them in places where you can't retreat and not getting surprised?
That is part of how to deal with rollers, anyway. If the roller knows what he/she's doing then they'll always be trying to kill you with their fling attack, never by straight-up rolling. Their fling has slightly longer range than the Jr. and Aerospray, but even those weapons have ways to pick off rollers (mostly from good movement and certain specials). What you want to do is try to shoot them from as close to the maximum range of your weapon as possible. It's a lot like spacing in fighting games, really. And to take it a step further, get the jump on them instead of the other way around. Sneak attacks are like a golden rule of shooters in general, and Splatoon's inking mechanics allow for some very creative ways to ambush people. Keeping track of enemy rollers so you don't get ambushed yourself does takes some map awareness, but finding the time to safely look away from the TV and at the Gamepad can sometimes be easier said than done. That said, catching enemy movements on the Gamepad can be very rewarding, so it's definitely worth it to practice that.